Alternative Party and Independent Candidates for 2009 Gubernatorial Elections

In Virginia, the only known minor party or independent candidate currently petitioning is Glenda Gail Parker of the Independent Green Party. The party had tried to persuade Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals Ice Hockey team, to be its candidate, but he declined. The petition deadline is in June.

In New Jersey, where the petition deadline is also in June, there are two independent candidates who have received a fair amount of press attention. They are Christopher Daggett and Reverend Shannon Wright. Daggett is a former regional director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Reagan, and headed New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection under Governor Thomas Kean. Shannon Wright had been Campaign Manager for a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Franklin Mayor Brian Levine. However, Levine failed to collect 1,000 signatures of registered Republicans, so he is off the ballot for the June primary, and that motivated Wright to enter the race as an independent.

The only minor party gubernatorial candidates so far are Angela Lariscy of the Socialist Workers Party, and Greg Pason of the Socialist Party. The New Jersey Conservative Party has endorsed one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates, Steve Lonegan (it was Lonegan who challenged the petitions of Brian Levine). The Libertarian Party state convention, held March 31, did not nominate anyone for governor. The Green Party and the Constitution Party have not named any gubernatorial candidate, although since only 800 valid signatures are needed for minor party and independent candidates, such candidates might still emerge. Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for the news about Christopher Daggett.

27 thoughts on “Alternative Party and Independent Candidates for 2009 Gubernatorial Elections”

The “Independent Green Party” of Virginia is not related to the official, GP-US.

Glenda Gail Parker was seeking the nomination for presidential candidate and came to the Green Party conventions. Though, at a high-profile presidential forum, she suggested greens might want to endorse Michael Bloomberg for their presidential candidate.

It’s pathetic to see how low the New Jersey Libertarian Party has sunk in recent years. If they were selling a product or service they could be sued for fraudulant misrepresentation.

Twelve years ago they had a candidate, Murray Sabrin, who was able to raise enough money to qualify for matching funds and participate in debates with major party candidates. Unfortunately, however, he ran on a paleo-conservative platform and despite spending over a million dollars ended up with less than five percent of the total vote.

In 2001 the NJLP nominated a certifiable psychopath who imploded before the election, was repudiated by many NJLP activists, and wound up with something less than one-quarter of one percent.

In 2005 they didn’t fare much better though their candidate put up enough of his own money to participate in debates but did not qualify for matching funds.

I suspect this year alot of NJLP’ers are supporting paleoconservative throwback and neoDixiecrat Steve Lonegan in the GOP primary. Lonegan’s claim to fame is organizing a boycott of McDonalds a few years ago for advertising in Spanish, and he’s become the favorite of closet Klansmen, homophobes and social reactionaries who, unfortunately, have come to typify many Republican Liberty Caucus and LP candidates in recent years.

I suspect this year alot of NJLP’ers are supporting paleoconservative throwback and neoDixiecrat Steve Lonegan in the GOP primary. Lonegan’s claim to fame is organizing a boycott of McDonalds a few years ago for advertising in Spanish, and he’s become the favorite of closet Klansmen, homophobes and social reactionaries who, unfortunately, have come to typify many Republican Liberty Caucus and LP candidates in recent years.

Pathetic if true. Can someone file as a Libertarian in NJ without the party’s nomination?

They can file by June 2 as an independent candidate and use whatever slogan they wish. If they call themselves “Libertarian” it would be hypocritical, to say the least, and perhaps even comical if the NJLP tried to sue them off the ballot.

The Independent Greens would say, Kimberly, that they think it’s sad that you use the “green” label. They claim that when Green values were first extrapolated, in Germany, they were fiscally conservative/free market and low tax–but also stood for conservation and mass transit. Having spoken with several of their main activists, I find them to be more sane than I originally assumed.

Richard- I try not to engage in partisan debate on BAN. It just doesn’t seem appropriate to do that in what appears to be a “legal” site that is there (IMHO) to assist ALL with negotiating the minefield of ballot access.

In fact, I have tried to steer non-legal debate to this site, to little avail.

COME ON GREENS:YOU CAN WIN IN VIRGINIA AND NEW JERSEY ON YEAR 2009.DON’T LET DEMOCRATES SNOOKER YOU!!!THEY ARE WORKING IT.AND YOU ARE IT.THE SNOOKS.YOU’VE GOT TO THINK FOR YOURSELVES AND LOOK OUT FOR YOUR SELVES.DON’T TRUST THE DEMOCRATES UNTIL THEY BECOME TRUSTWORTHY!!!

I agree with melty, ‘alternative’ seems to have more positive connotations than ‘minor’ or ‘third.’ Such word choices have a huge effect on political perceptions. Why not also some variation on ‘opposition party’?

To #25:
We here at Third Party Revolution endorse your candidacy for the New Jersey Assembly 19th District Race, along with many other third party and independent candidates seeking public offices nation-wide, ranging from local to federal levels.